


Prepare for Impact

by moonrise31



Series: once, twice, and again until it's over [11]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, but this is still a minayeon fic i promise, sahyo hit me like a bulldozer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 02:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15809445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonrise31/pseuds/moonrise31
Summary: In which Mina’s longtime crush gets a little more real, and Nayeon struggles to balance her newfound crush with more revolutionary concerns -- namely, overthrowing the national government.(Alternatively, in which Sana’s crush isdefinitelyreal, and Jihyo tries to pretend hers isn’t.)And so the story goes.





	Prepare for Impact

"Unnie," Jihyo says, voice long past simply wavering on the edge of exasperation.

"What?" Nayeon demands as she slouches in her chair, crossing her legs and then her arms. "For the last time, I don't need a bodyguard. I'm not some spoiled princess who can't take care of herself."

"But you _are_ the leader of a national rebellion," Jihyo reminds her. "It's not like you’ll have to stop fighting. Just think of it as having an extra buddy to back you up when things get tough."

"Then why can't it be you?" Nayeon presses, and even from her seat behind the desk, she’s glaring up at Jihyo; Jihyo struggles to remember exactly who the oldest in this room is.

She settles for an eye roll. "Because I'm your head of security, and it wouldn't do anyone except the enemy any good if we were always both in the same place at the same time." Nayeon's pout remains, and Jihyo throws her hands up. "For the love of all things good, unnie, can you _grow up_ ?"

Nayeon crosses her arms, gaze hardening in a way Jihyo already knows to mean that they'll be in a deadlock for a while. "I haven't needed a bodyguard until now. Why the sudden change?"

"I, too, thought you were more than capable of handling yourself," Jihyo deadpans. "But then a bomb almost blew up _in your face_."

"That was Chaeyoung!" Nayeon protests. "And she apologized afterwards. It’s already been more than a month since."

Jihyo sighs. "That's not the point. _The point is_ ," she says loudly over Nayeon's imminent interruption, "that your face, blurry as the security footage from then was, has suddenly been plastered all over the national news. You won't be able to go out _anywhere_ without getting recognized now." She casts a critical eye over Nayeon's white shirt, cargo pants, and combat boots. "And especially if you keep wearing threatening, obviously-up-to-things-revolutionary outfits like that."

"I can change my outfit if I want to," Nayeon retorts. Then she pauses, tapping her chin. "You're right, though. My face is way too stunning not to be distinguishable, even in the grainiest of pictures."

"Right." Jihyo doesn't know how many times she's rolled her eyes since she'd stepped into the room, but she's amazed she isn't dizzy at this point. "So _please_ just say yes to having a bodyguard? I'm not even asking for you to have a full security detail. Just _one_ extra human to make sure you can get from this place to another and back in one whole piece."

Nayeon sinks back into her chair again. "Fine, whatever. I'll just ignore him most of the time either way."

"Her," Jihyo corrects. "And I think she'd be okay with being ignored, if that's what you want." She turns to look over her shoulder and raises her voice. "Hey, Mina."

The door opens, and Mina walks in.

"What the fuck," says Nayeon, jumping to her feet.

Mina turns to close the door behind her, giving Nayeon a perfect view of her side profile in the process. Then, she faces forward again. "Pardon?"

"Jihyo,” Nayeon hisses as Mina comes to stand at attention in front of them, feet shoulder-width apart and hands clasped respectfully in front of her. Nayeon's eyes wander the bodyguard's lithe frame, and she comes away with the impression of a coiled spring. A red-hot one, maybe, because -- "You didn't tell me that bodyguards were allowed to be _attractive_."

"What am _I_ then?" Jihyo has definitely had enough. "Anyway, unnie, feel free to ignore your new companion as much as you wish. Mina won't mind either way."

Mina nods. "You won't even know I'm here, Nayeon-ssi."

Nayeon almost sits back down again, because she hadn't known until this moment that a voice so soft is capable of knocking her knees together so hard. She clears her throat instead, leaning forward a little and propping herself up on the edge of her desk. "Right."

Jihyo now throws her a knowing look -- one of those smug ones that makes Nayeon wish Jihyo could be _wrong_ for once in her damn life -- and then steps forward to pat Mina's shoulder. "Mina here is new to the team, but I assure you that she's already one of the best we have. She'll be alternating twelve-hour shifts with Momo, so you'll be protected at all times." She turns to exit the room. "I'll just leave you two to get acquainted."

"Thanks," Nayeon manages to mutter before the door swings open and shut again.

Mina lets a few beats of silence pass before she says, "Perhaps we should go over some ground rules, Nayeon-ssi?"

"Right." Nayeon coughs and collects herself. She walks around her desk and leans back on it, palms flat on the desktop as she crosses one leg in front of the other. "Look, I'm of the opinion that I don't need a babysitter, but I understand that Jihyo gave you a job to do. So you do your thing, and I do mine, and neither of us will get in the other's way. Okay?"

Mina nods again. "As you wish."

Nayeon shifts, and then uncrosses her legs. "And relax a little. If we're going to be spending twelve consecutive hours together every day, there's no need to be so formal." 

"Okay, Nayeon-ssi," Mina says, and lets her hands unclasp and fall to her sides instead. 

Nayeon grimaces. She turns, catching sight of the file folder under her left palm, and belatedly remembers that Jihyo had brought it in so she could peruse Mina's profile before they met. She picks it up and leafs through the first few pages. "You're younger than me, so you can just call me 'unnie', okay?"

"Okay...unnie," Mina tries. The careful mask on her facial features cracks momentarily, hands nervously fluttering for a few moments before they join in front of her once more.

Nayeon grins, ignoring the mirroring flutter in some corner of her own chest. "We'll work on it."

-

"Unnie," Mina groans twelve hours later as she steps into the head of security's office. "Why did you have to tell Jihyo to assign me to Nayeon-unnie?" She blinks at Sana, who's lounging on the couch, and then realizes that Jihyo is sitting next to the older girl. " _Jihyo_ , why did you listen to Sana-unnie?"

"I take it your first shift went well, then," Sana chuckles, scooting closer to Jihyo so there's room for Mina on the couch. "I don't see why you're complaining. Now you get exclusive one-on-one time with your crush for literally half of each day!"

"Are you sure you still have a crush?" Jihyo asks curiously. "Now that you've seen the side of her that's not charismatic, charming rebellion leader?"

Mina's cheeks redden slightly as she ducks her head. "I guess she's a little goofier than I imagined -- "

"Did she trip over that bump in the carpet again?" Sana asks sympathetically. "I keep telling her to get that ironed out."

"Don't act like you don't trip over that same bump just as many times," Jihyo scoffs, prodding Sana in the shoulder.

"Which is why she should get it ironed out," Sana insists. Then she turns to Mina. "Okay, she's goofy, but?"

Mina murmurs something quickly under her breath, and the other two women immediately lean closer. Jihyo chuckles. "What was that?"

"I said," Mina coughs and raises her voice slightly, "she's still really cute when she smiles, and if we were allowed to have cellphones I would definitely still want a picture with her." Sana and Jihyo immediately begin to bombard her with an obnoxious mixture of "ooh"s and "aww"s, so Mina stands up and makes a beeline for the door. "I'm going to take a nap. I'll see you later."

The door clicks shut, and Sana immediately turns to Jihyo. "So, boss. Someone caught _your_ attention lately?"

Jihyo rolls her eyes, but makes no complaint when Sana shifts to the now unoccupied corner of the couch, bringing up her legs so that her heels are now resting on Jihyo's thigh. She giggles when Jihyo tickles the sole of her foot and answers her, "I think Mina's crush on Nayeon-unnie is cute. But I don't do that sort of thing."

Sana props herself up on her elbows. "What sort of thing? Crushing?"

Jihyo shrugs, restless hand now still and warm against Sana's shin. 

"Liar," Sana snickers. She pulls her knees in as she sits up straighter, the corner of her lips quirking when she notices Jihyo's hand hover in the air for a split second before smoothly lowering to rest primly in her now empty lap. "You do _too_ have a crush."

Jihyo sighs, throwing her head back and sinking further into the couch. "How old are you? Five?"

"Have you ever heard of the story about the spear and the shield?" 

“No.” Jihyo turns her head to look at the other woman. “Is this going to take a long time? Because I'd really like to get a nap in before the next mild catastrophe in this building inevitably occurs."

"There once was a weapons merchant," Sana begins easily, scooting closer. "He claimed to have the sharpest spear in the land -- it could pierce through anything, he said. Nothing could stand in its way. At the same time, he was also selling a shield -- the strongest one ever made, he boasted. Impenetrable by any sort of weapon you might throw at the wielder."

"You've clearly been watching too many infomercials," says Jihyo.

"So the question is, if I'm the strongest spear and you're the strongest shield, " Sana pokes a gentle finger into the flesh below Jihyo's collarbone, "who's going to win in the end?"

Jihyo feels her face heat up, and she briskly pushes Sana away with one hand. "You don't need to lean in that far. I could hear you even if you were on the other side of the room."

"I know," Sana says cheerfully, sliding even closer before she loops their arms together and rests her head on Jihyo's shoulder. "But I'm not on the other side of the room. I'm _here_."

"Yeah," Jihyo grumbles, tilting her own head until it rests against Sana's. She hopes Sana won't be able to hear the rapid staccato her heart is beating against her eardrums. "You're here."

-

Momo is what most would call _discrete_. It's something she wrote into her resume on Sana's insistence, and it sort of makes sense on the surface -- she keeps to herself, doesn't get caught in the grapevine of gossip that every community of individuals is prone to developing. Perfect bodyguard material, Sana had declared.

A grenade whistles through the window and clatters to the cement a few meters to their left. Without a second thought, she grabs Nayeon's arm and shoves her behind the remains of a broken wall, diving behind it just before the explosive shatters the room around them.

Momo, of course, is inclined to think that her ignorance of other people's lives has less to do with her being discrete and more to do with how her mind runs only on one track. It's why Jeongyeon catches her daydreaming in the surveillance room more often than not, because watching the masses of tiny people moving through pixel after pixel of their entire headquarters tends to put Momo's mind in a place fuzzier than the black-and-white of all those computer screens.

"You know," Nayeon suddenly says between heaving breaths, "I think I like Mina."

Momo blinks, and then carefully straightens to check their surroundings. "All clear. We should keep moving, unnie."

Nayeon follows Momo, the both of them crouching low as they make their way past the blackened remains of the window frame. "She's your coworker, right? So you must know what she's like when she's not working."

"She joined up with Sana and me," Momo answers, rifle ready as she scouts the next room from behind the doorway. "Clear." The two of them duck inside, sticking to the wall as they make their way towards the exit. "She's pretty quiet and reserved, but she has her moments."

"She's _nothing_ but quiet and reserved when she's with me," Nayeon muses. "Wait, hold on." She straightens, and then smashes the butt of her rifle through the glass of the only window. She unclips a grenade -- one of Chaeyoung's special inventions -- from her belt and lobs it through the jagged hole. She and Momo duck, fingers stuffed in their ears. The entire building shakes, and then it's quiet again. Thick dark smoke billows up from below and collects outside, shielding their floor and the ones underneath in a black haze.

"That gives us a minute or so to evacuate," Momo says, grabbing Nayeon's arm and rushing for the exit. 

"As I was saying," Nayeon puffs as they make it to the stairwell and begin their descent. "She's just quiet and reserved as my bodyguard. I guess sometimes she stutters a little, but she's still so _polite_ and _formal_ even though I got her to start calling me 'unnie'."

"Well, that's probably to be expected," Momo says offhandedly over the clatter of their boots against the concrete steps. "Since she likes -- "

A loud explosion -- probably from a few floors above -- rattles the entire stairwell. Flakes of concrete drop onto the steps around them, and Nayeon brushes a few stray chunks from her hair. "Likes what?"

Momo belatedly realizes her slip, but buys herself a few seconds by leaning over the railing to peer above and below them. "Still seems sound. We only have five more floors before we hit ground."

"Okay." And in a surprising feat of athleticism, Nayeon jumps over the last few steps, landing in a safe crouch. She glances up at Momo. "Well, come on then. We don't have all day."

Momo jumps after her, and they clear the rest of the floors before the next minute is up. Their previous entrance has long since caved in, but Nayeon knows there's another one on the opposite side. Jeongyeon's voice crackles to life in their earpieces then, informing them of Tzuyu's arrival.

"She likes ketchup," Momo finally says when they arrive at the exit, fortunately untouched. She opens the door, spotting the armored van in the distance with its tinted glass, the odd star-shaped dent in the driver's side door the only indication that it’s Tzuyu’s.

The van hasn’t always been that -- Tzuyu's. But after a brilliant impromptu plan by her and Momo to slick the road leading to their getaway with slimy oil -- which led to the front runners of their pack of pursuers losing balance and smashing helmet-first into the door -- Tzuyu had, to put it mildly, become attached. 

"Okay," Nayeon laughs after Momo gives the all-clear, and the both of them dash towards the waiting vehicle. "I'll keep that in mind."

Momo allows herself a small smile as they run, and it stays tingling at the corner of her lips even as they dive into the back of the van, gasping greetings to Tzuyu and what turns out to be Dahyun in the shotgun seat. 

The oldest of "The Lunchroom Tactical Team" -- some moniker Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu had come up with while bored one lazy afternoon in the mess hall back at headquarters -- looks a little frazzled, but otherwise gives them a wide grin. And, glancing past Tzuyu's head through the windshield and spying the large plumes of smoke streaming out of the top floors of the building she and Nayeon had just vacated, Momo confirms that the entire sabotage operation is a success.

“Ketchup,” Nayeon mutters to herself, low enough that she probably thinks Momo can’t hear. But Nayeon thinks a lot of things, like how she was supposedly subtle with her thoughts regarding Mina until her abrupt, punctuated-by-a-rain-of-shrapnel confession only minutes ago. And poor Mina, for her part, has managed to keep the details of her crush secret from all but the security team. But it doesn't take a _genius_ to put two and two together.

It's pretty cute, if Momo thinks about it, and she maybe gets too caught up in doing so, because she almost falls out of her seat -- despite being buckled in -- when Nayeon suddenly turns to her.

"So what's up with Sana and Jihyo?"

\- 

Nayeon’s question turns out to be the exact one Jeongyeon fires at Mina when the bodyguard steps into Jihyo’s office, only to find a lack of Jihyo and two faces she’s still not so familiar with instead. 

Mina blinks. “Pardon?”

“Right, I guess we should introduce ourselves.” The smaller woman sprawled on the opposite side of the couch from Jeongyeon sits up. “That’s Jeongyeon, head of operations, and I’m Chaeyoung, resident demolitions expert.”

“Demolitions,” Mina repeats. She thinks about the box that Nayeon keeps under her desk and often uses as a footrest, made of heavy-duty metal and with a white skull and crossbones spray painted across the top in a cartoonish fashion. 

“That’s right.” Chaeyoung grins. “You name it, I can drop it. Grenades, mortars, dynamite, fireworks, truth bombs.”

“Dropping explosives is also how she ended up meeting Nayeon,” Jeongyeon comments wryly. 

“I was just trying to help the cause,” Chaeyoung protests. “It’s not my fault a grenade rolled out of my bag and blew up in her face.”

Mina’s eyebrows raise almost imperceptibly. “That was you?”

“Jihyo-unnie caught me afterwards of course,” Chaeyoung continues, sheepish as she tucks her hands into her hoodie pockets. “I think she was probably going to beat me up at least a little bit for it, but the bomb blew up in my face too, so I was bleeding enough already.” She pauses. “I still have the scars. Wanna see?”

"Maybe another time," Jeongyeon tells her, kicking a leg up to rest across Chaeyoung's lap and block her from lifting up the edge of her shirt. "I'm pretty sure Mina here has her sights set on someone else anyway."

"I know _that_ ," Chaeyoung huffs. "My scar is just cool."

Mina coughs, hoping the lighting in the room is dim enough to hide the reddening in her cheeks. "Why are you asking about Sana-unnie and Jihyo?"

"Well, you've apparently known Sana since forever, and Jihyo only knows you because of Sana," Jeongyeon says reasonably. "So if they get together, you'd be the first to know, right?"

The door slams open; Mina barely manages to escape from being flattened against the wall. Dahyun lets out a loud groan as she strides in, Tzuyu a pace behind. The older woman throws herself onto the couch, landing halfway in Chaeyoung's lap. "I am _exhausted_."

"You could have slept on the ride back," Tzuyu says, calm as ever as she walks over to the table and pulls out a chair to settle in.

Dahyun scoffs. "I don't know if you recall, but we were, in fact, being chased by an entire _squadron_ of enemy fighter jets almost the entire way."

"It was one tank," says Tzuyu, "and it only nicked us on the last shot."

Mina's eyes widen. "Are you guys okay? Are Nayeon-unnie and Momo-unnie okay?"

"The only casualty was my van," Tzuyu assures her, albeit wistfully. "Gucci's in the repair shop as we speak."

"It's because you didn't agree to call him 'Ahri', which is a clearly superior name," Dahyun declares. She shifts completely off Chaeyoung's lap, throwing an arm around her shoulder instead. "So what's this I hear about Sana-unnie and Jihyo-unnie?"

"Did someone call?" Sana chirps brightly, pushing the door open as she and Jihyo enter.

Jihyo gives the occupants of her couch and table a critical scan. "You do know this is an _office_ , and not a breakroom?"

Mina, meanwhile, is intently focused on a particular feature in between Sana and Jihyo. And half a beat later, Jeongyeon accordingly comments, "It depends on whether or not what you two have there is _platonic_ hand-holding."

Jihyo immediately blushes, while Sana's grin turns almost insufferably smug. She turns to their head of security, leaning in until her nose almost brushes against the other's cheek. "I don't know. What do you think, Jihyo? Is this _platonic_ hand-holding?"

Tzuyu raises a hand. "If you're going to kiss, I'd like to be excused."

"Congratulations, unnies." Chaeyoung gives them a gracious slow clap. "So who made the first move?"

"Does it count as the first move if Sana-unnie has already been making the first move literally every day for the past two months?" Dahyun asks.

"It was getting kind of exhausting," Jeongyeon agrees. "I was getting flustered by association." And then throws her head back, laughing loudly, when she notices Jihyo's grip on Sana's hand tighten protectively.

"If you wanted to know," Sana says primly, " _Jihyo_ kissed _me_."

"I didn't mean to." Jihyo's blush has spread to her ears by now, and she jerks her gaze furiously to the far corner of the room, past where Mina is still standing. "It's only because you tripped while we were organizing files and pulled us both to the ground. Your face was _right there_."

"Okay then," Sana practically sings. "Jihyo kissed me _accidentally_ , but it still counts."

Jihyo grumbles some more, but slips her hand out of Sana's in favor of wrapping her arm around the other's waist. And Mina is the only one who doesn't miss the way Sana automatically leans into the new touch, how her entire body practically hums at finally finding another person to call home.

It's warm, Mina thinks as she slips out of the room just as Jihyo starts to yell at Jeongyeon to get her feet off the coffee table. Warm like a fresh plate of Momo's favorite jokbal, or one of her own game consoles from her childhood after she'd played for a few hours too long.

Mina's step falters slightly when she suddenly remembers the first time she'd heard Nayeon laugh. They had been eating breakfast in the mess hall -- in a perfectly normal fashion, Mina might add -- when Nayeon almost snorted her entire bowl of congee. 

Mina, of course, had immediately vaulted over the table and landed on the bench next to Nayeon, ready to do the Heimlich or CPR or at least thump her back until the offending clumps of rice dislodged themselves. Fortunately, Nayeon was able to cough her way to the semblance of normal breathing, and waved Mina's agitated hands away.

And maybe it was then: the tingle of Nayeon's fingers brushing against her own, even unintentionally. Or maybe it was how the mess hall lights danced in Nayeon's eyes as they crinkled at the corners -- something Mina had never seen during the big confident speeches Nayeon gives to the entire headquarters once in a while, or in passing on her way to various exams and interviews Jihyo had run her through, or even in the last month after she'd been assigned as a bodyguard. 

"You really do like ketchup, huh?" Nayeon finally managed to gasp once she'd flicked away the last of her amused tears.

Mina glanced down at her plate. "Ketchup on eggs is a perfectly normal thing to have, unnie."

"Yeah, sure," Nayeon agreed with a smirk. "But what _you_ have is more like eggs on ketchup."

It wasn't the first time someone's commented on Mina's affinity for this particular condiment -- Sana still finds ways to slip it into casual conversation even at the risk of Mina kicking her ass into next week. But when Nayeon talked about it, it was different. It's -- 

It's warmth, too, Mina decides. And concludes that the only reason that particular instant smashed into her thoughts just now is because she's on her way to relieve Momo's shift.

-

Nayeon wakes up in a bed in the medical ward. She's found herself in a concerning number of similar situations before, so she doesn't immediately panic when she opens up her eyes to white walls and crisp folds of linen draped over her torso. Mina fidgeting in the chair next to her bed, though, is a fresh and oddly endearing sight. 

"You tripped," Mina supplies at Nayeon's blank stare. "In your office. Your head hit the edge of your desk because I couldn't catch you in time, so..." She drops her own gaze to her hands clasped in her lap. "The nurse says you don't have a concussion, but there was some bleeding."

That explains the bandages wrapped snugly around Nayeon's head, then. She's half sure that Jennie gets great entertainment just from seeing how much she can strangle Nayeon's cranium before it can be defined as torture, but Nayeon supposes that's what she gets for being friends with someone whose favorite drink is _milk_.

Mina clears her throat. "I should take this opportunity to say that it's been a pleasure working with you, Nayeon-ssi."

"Wait what?" Nayeon's dry throat makes her sound like a dying frog at best, but she's too occupied fighting with her sheets in order to properly sit up to care. "What's with the sudden formality? And are you going somewhere?"

Mina stares at her. "I had _one job_ , unnie, and I wasn't able to do it. Jihyo's going to come by to check up on you soon, and I think she's going to nicely fire me while she's at it."

And Nayeon can't help it then. She laughs, tilting her head back because it's really _that_ funny. The back of her skull meets a warm palm, the only thing between her enthusiastically bandaged cranium and the wall she'd almost banged it into. 

Mina is still staring at her, but now with a frown that wonders if Nayeon is actually really _all there_ like the nurse had promised. "Unnie?"

"Mina," Nayeon finally manages through residual chuckles, "you're my bodyguard, not a miracle worker. Jihyo herself can tell you how many times she's had to bring me here because I've tripped on that damn wrinkle in the carpet yet again."

"Oh," Mina exhales, shoulders immediately dropping as the tension washes out of them. She starts to pull her hand back. "That's good, then."

Nayeon reaches up, fingers gently wrapping around Mina's wrist before sliding against her palm. "Hey, I'm going to ask you something."

"Okay," Mina breathes, entirely too distracted by the soft circles Nayeon's thumb is now tracing against the back of her hand.

"Myoui Mina," Nayeon says. She leans forward, tugging Mina a little closer in the process. "Which do you like better, me or ketchup?"

Mina's jaw drops slightly. "I'm not sure what you mean -- "

Nayeon hums, tapping her chin with her free hand as she muses, "Or maybe me _with_ ketchup?"

" _Unnie!_ " Mina _definitely_ flushes redder than any ketchup brand. She scrambles to her feet, but Nayeon pulls again. Mina loses her balance and falls half onto the bed, one foot still planted on the floor while her other knee sinks into the mattress. Her free hand lands on the other side of Nayeon's blanketed legs, and she props herself up, turning her head and noticing that this is the closest she's gotten to Nayeon's face, probably ever.

"You can come closer if you want," Nayeon says mildly. "I won't bite unless you want me to."

The helpless sound Mina makes in response is (un)fortunately covered by Sana bursting into the room. "Nayeon-unnie, I finally convinced Jeongyeon to fix that bump in the carpet! So as soon as you're feeling better, you can -- " She stops abruptly, registering the scene before her. Mina is in the middle of trying to evacuate the bed, if not the entire premises, but Nayeon doesn't seem particularly keen on letting her hand go anytime soon.

"Sana, don't block the doorway," Jihyo sighs from behind her. She pushes Sana gently forward as she turns around to close the door. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing at all," Sana says, grin the very definition of shit-eating. "Nayeon-unnie seems to be feeling _much_ better, thanks to Mina."

Jihyo finally looks over at the pair; Mina has managed to get both feet on the ground now and is standing by the bed, back ramrod-straight, looking anywhere but at the other occupants of the room. Not that Nayeon seems to be working particularly hard to keep Mina's hand in hers, but Jihyo will give Mina the benefit of the doubt. "Unnie," Jihyo says, "if this is your way of telling me you don't need a bodyguard, it's a funny way of showing it."

"Good," says Nayeon simply. "Because I think I'll be needing a bodyguard for a very, very long time, actually." She glances up at Mina. "If that's alright with you, I mean."

Mina's shifting gaze finally lands back on Nayeon, and Jihyo thinks the younger woman actually does melt a little -- her knees definitely buckle, at least. "That will work," Mina mumbles.

"And that's what I call character development," Sana declares, looping her arm through Jihyo's before heading towards the door. "Come on, looks like we're not needed anymore."

Jihyo takes one last glance over her shoulder before Sana pulls her out of the room -- and almost laughs at how Nayeon is trying to be patient, blanketed feet twitching back and forth as she waits for Mina to lean in again. 

There are worse things to be than in love with your bodyguard, Jihyo decides. Or in love with your subordinate, she supposes, as Sana's hand runs comfortably along the small of her back.

" _There_ you are." Jeongyeon rushes up to the both of them; Sana keeps her hand where it is, and Jihyo has long since stopped pretending that she has it in herself to move it. "Dahyun and Chaeyoung may have gotten themselves into a...situation while they were trying to repair Tzuyu's van."

Jihyo opens her mouth to reply, and then pauses when a distant boom echoes in the hallway. 

"The situation may still be happening as we speak," Jeongyeon adds tactfully.

Sana hums. "How much do you want to bet that that explosion was a _good_ thing?"

Jihyo does laugh then, and threads her fingers through the spaces of the hand Sana has now managed to settle on her hip. "There are definitely worse things to be."

**Author's Note:**

> I ended up wanting to write a troll fic like the entire BDZ music video is, so here we are. If you're into that kind of thing, feel free to come talk to me on Twitter (@moonrise31)!


End file.
